Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[The Last Stand]

Niko Bellic is another example: Game portrays him as a cold blooded man of few words, comes from fighting wars in the sticks from other side of the world... And then out of nowhere he throws out an entire speech on homophobia and how wrong it is. The writers must've remembered what character they were writing by the end of it, as Niko goes something like "Shit, i don't usually talk this much" before shutting up.

I think it's more with American hypocrisy with Bryce Dawkins and his resentment with Dimitri than pushing a message. Of course, I feel Niko's pessimistic outlook on American life can be too on the nose to where it sounds like the writers are just venting.

Especially given how much Slavs hate gays.

Why did you think Florian exiled into Liberty City?

 

[Psyduck]

I think it's more with American hypocrisy with Bryce Dawkins and his resentment with Dimitri than pushing a message. Of course, I feel Niko's pessimistic outlook on American life can be too on the nose to where it sounds like the writers are just venting.

It could've been that, sure. But it's definitely stands out to have someone as short worded as Niko bust out an entire monologue defending a man he was ready to murder a few days earlier when previously he'd just dismiss any american hypocrisy with maybe a sentence or two.

 

[The Last Stand]

It could've been that, sure. But it's definitely stands out to have someone as short worded as Niko bust out an entire monologue defending a man he was ready to murder a few days earlier when previously he'd just dismiss any american hypocrisy with maybe a sentence or two.

I just don't like Niko's social commentary with his rants. It just sounds like the writers are using Niko as a soapbox for how THEY feel about America.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

I just don't like Niko's social commentary with his rants. It just sounds like the writers are using Niko as a soapbox for how THEY feel about America.

Eh... i don't know, but Rockstar North isn't in Edinburgh, Scotia?

 

[The Last Stand]

There's something about driving around Algonquin's Star Junction (IV's rendition of Lower Manhattan) and listening to The Vibe that makes this game special. Late night cruising while listening to R&B is priceless.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Only 11 months to go before 2025 starts.

 

[The Last Stand]

For those who disliked GTA IV's grounded approach, if The Ballad of Gay Tony WAS GTA IV, would you had liked it?

I like how mission replays are handled in TBoGT compared to V. In V, when you replay a mission, you're teleported into the mission parameters. Once you fail or pass the mission, you're ejected out from the world from the last point you were in. In TBoGT. if you fail/pass a mission, the world "resumes" around you. No jump cut, no loading, just done.

 

[Snekposter]

Especially when you read the journal it is clear that Morgan holds a very dim view (copied from Dutch, obviously) towards Scarlett Meadows.

TBH Arthur Morgan is just one giant anti-authoritarian so him hating a slave catcher is quite in-character.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

For those who disliked GTA IV's grounded approach, if The Ballad of Gay Tony WAS GTA IV, would you had liked it?

I like how mission replays are handled in TBoGT compared to V. In V, when you replay a mission, you're teleported into the mission parameters. Once you fail or pass the mission, you're ejected out from the world from the last point you were in. In TBoGT. if you fail/pass a mission, the world "resumes" around you. No jump cut, no loading, just done.

TBOGT was pretty much them trying to make GTA VI fun by adding some elements that made Vice City and San Andreas popular, like skydiving and driving in tanks.

Even the golden gun that they had in the game which you borrowed from Yusuf Amir was a nice, fun touch.

 

[modern horrors]

I wonder why companies do this.

Because if a game is moddable you only buy it once but then you can have infinite fun with it. Why should I buy next game in the series (that will undoubtedly be worse because it's the current year) if I can mod whatever I want in the game I already own? Always-online-"games are a subscription service" bullshit is the next step.

 

[The handsome tard]

It could've been that, sure. But it's definitely stands out to have someone as short worded as Niko bust out an entire monologue defending a man he was ready to murder a few days earlier when previously he'd just dismiss any american hypocrisy with maybe a sentence or two.

I won't put it above that this hypocrisy was intentional. The thing with Niko is that we can pretend that he is a noble man that just found himself in bad situations and while that's not necessarily wrong, he still partakes in the game. He didnt come to LC to escape from violence like he implies initially, he is there for revenge and more killing.

The end of the game is to remind Niko and the audience that there is realistically no escaping the game without losing something, your life or someone you love because to last that long in the game, you no doubt pissed off one or two powerful players. He didnt get to do horrible things for horrible people and just walk away into the sunset with an Irish babe on his arm after his cousin's wedding. There is a reason the whole thing was framed as the Hollywood ending for Niko, before the drive by brings us back to brutal reality.

Niko wants to believe he is above it all but he is not and that's an element that many don't seem to get. He may be better than most in there but he is still very much guilty of playing and strengthening the game.

It's a bit like Breaking Bad and Jessie Pinkman, is he likable ? Yes. Do we want him to live happily ever after ? Yes. Did he still do awful things and actively participated in the game when he had many times to leave it for good? Absolutely Yes.

Just because you love a character's complexity and standards, doesn't mean they aren't still partaking in bad activities.

 

[The Last Stand]

I had thought TBoGT had a couple callbacks from GTA III. Ray's sister yelling in the baackground and meeting Vinnie & Rocco in the public park toilets.

Niko wants to believe he is above it all but he is not and that's an element that many don't seem to get. He may be better than most in there but he is still very much guilty of playing and strengthening the game.

It's a bit like Breaking Bad and Jessie Pinkman, is he likable ? Yes. Do we want him to live happily ever after ? Yes. Did he still do awful things and actively participated in the game when he had many times to leave it for good? Absolutely Yes.

Just because you love a character's complexity and standards, doesn't mean they aren't still partaking in bad activities.

Something like what I bolded is missing nowadays. You can LIKE a character, but they don't have to be a "good" person.

 

[Psyduck]

Something like what I bolded is missing nowadays. You can LIKE a character, but they don't have to be a "good" person.

The anti-hero trope is very popular nowadays, but they're usually watered down to safer points. Can't have them being *actual* bad people, can we?

 

[Would]

Niko Bellic is another example: Game portrays him as a cold blooded man of few words, comes from fighting wars in the sticks from other side of the world... And then out of nowhere he throws out an entire speech on homophobia and how wrong it is. The writers must've remembered what character they were writing by the end of it, as Niko goes something like "Shit, i don't usually talk this much" before shutting up.

I guess if he wasn't a fag supporter, it'd make no sense for him to agree to meet up with Florian.
Though if R* had taken a minute to remove the dildo from their asses they could've written how initially Niko is very anti-fag vs Roman who is more or less ok with gays, with Niko berating his cousin for how America has addled his brain into thinking man-on-man intercourse is fine.
Later on Roman could convince a hesitant Niko to catch up with Florian, which results in Niko learning that deep down, his old brother in arms is still there and has moved on from the tragedy of their youth. The fact his relationship is with a "conservative" family man could also make Niko see the irony of it all and become more accepting (not embracing) of gays as a result.

Or IDK, anything makes more sense than a testosterone-riddled Slav coming with American perceptions on homosexuality straight out of the boat.
I will never get why R* never had qualms offending most people but a protagonist that says "no fags" would've been a step too far.

The most annoying thing to me about Arthur Morgan is that despite speaking with the thicket possible Texan/Anglo-Louisianan drawl he also has a hate-on for Southerners.

He's supposed to be "one of the good ones" for 21st century neolibs I guess.
The annoying thing to me was that the trailers suggested you'd be playing as one of Dutch's most ruthless and ignorant men, yet the actual game discourages every effort to act like the average 1900s outlaw would act/think.
As cartoonishly evil as Micah is, he's a more accurate portrayal of an outlaw goon than Arthur was. The criminal with a heart of gold was always meant to be John, hence why he had outlasted them all, but they had to retcon him into a deadbeat nigger so that Arthur could make sense instead.

Nico, Arthur, Trevor. Never knew mass murdering psychopaths cared so much about the arc of history.

This is why Claude has retroactively become my favorite protagonist.

Why did you think Florian exiled into Liberty City?

Because his homeland gave him severe PTSD and it's implied he had no one left to go home to anyway.
He became a fag after arriving in LC, not before. Niko and Roman all remembered him as the alpha male among the boys with his strength and athletic physique from his wrestling days.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

The annoying thing to me was that the trailers suggested you'd be playing as one of Dutch's most ruthless and ignorant men, yet the actual game discourages every effort to act like the average 1900s outlaw would act/think.

I still stand that the game is it's most dramatic/cinematic/makes the most sense if you play the game as ruthless as possible at the start and only start to go good after Guarma and realizing you're dying and all this shit was pointless.

But most people on reddit told me I was a retard cause Arthur is a hecking good boy who never did nothing bad cause he can write in a journal.

 

[Would]

For those who disliked GTA IV's grounded approach, if The Ballad of Gay Tony WAS GTA IV, would you had liked it?

Yes.
You could've made the same "American dream" statements with Luis anyway.
Though without GTA IV having a hard-on for being an interactive HBO series, I would've never played Saints Row 2. For that, I thank R*.

TBH Arthur Morgan is just one giant anti-authoritarian so him hating a slave catcher is quite in-character.

I saw him more as anti-establishment than anti-authority. He sure had no qualms following the will and whims of one man for most of his life.

It's a bit like Breaking Bad and Jessie Pinkman, is he likable ? Yes. Do we want him to live happily ever after ? Yes.

I wanted to see Jesse lose, mostly because he became an unbearable crybaby once he had to do some actual criminal activity beyond petty distribution despite acting like he was ready for war near the end of season 3.

Did he still do awful things and actively participated in the game when he had many times to leave it for good? Absolutely Yes.

Yet Jesse got to walk away. Comparing him to Niko is an odd choice.
Losing two junkie girlfriends is nowhere near losing a relative who offered you the best he could and never ratted you out in an attempt to get the kidnappings and beatings to stop.

 

[The handsome tard]

I wanted to see Jesse lose, mostly because he became an unbearable crybaby once he had to do some actual criminal activity beyond petty distribution despite acting like he was ready for war near the end of season 3.

Jesse still kind of "lost" at the end. He got away from the game but he had to leave everything about his old life behind, with the PTSD never truly going away, he simply made peace with it. He doesnt even have that much cash left with him.

Jesse didnt win, he was just allowed a second chance into an unknown future.

Yet Jesse got to walk away. Comparing him to Niko is an odd choice.
Losing two junkie girlfriends is nowhere near losing a relative who offered you the best he could and never ratted you out in an attempt to get the kidnappings and beatings to stop.

The point of my argument was to establish that just because a character is likable, doesnt mean they are good people.

 

[The Last Stand]

GTA as a series is a paradox of itself. You have these expansive open worlds to roam around, yet its recent mission design is linear. Don't finish a mission the way R* WANTS/expects you to, mission fails. Game just stops. People complained that IV's mission design dwells into drive and shoot, but R* then gave the player more freedom and forethought into its mission design. In laymen's terms, it's rare that you'd fail for going off the beaten path.

You roleplay as a criminal, yet occasionally, it wants to inject its social commentary onto you AS a criminal. Morals for characters is fine, it's when the writing hamstrings it for their own benefit.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

Interesting video on maps in the GTA series and how GTA 5's Los Santos is less interesting the previous maps.

 

[Lone Star]

You roleplay as a criminal, yet occasionally, it wants to inject its social commentary onto you AS a criminal. Morals for characters is fine, it's when the writing hamstrings it for their own benefit.

Even as a criminal, the main story doesn't let a lot of the protagonists do too much of horrid things aside from Trevor. As far as I recall at least, it has been a while since I played any of the games. It's always especially odd to me how they let random people basically push them around and demand they do odd jobs and these badass criminals just go "Urgh...fine, whatever, I guess!"